Break the Code: Cryptography for Beginners

Break the Code: Cryptography for Beginners is a Dover instructional activity book that teaches six basic cipher techniques through step-by-step examples aimed at young and first-time readers.

The book walks through simple letter grouping, reverse trail, shift code, key word code, date shift code, and twisted path code, each explained in plain terms and followed by practice messages for the reader to encode and decode; 51 practice messages appear across the book, illustrated with cartoons by Larry Daste. A glossary of cryptographic terms, a sheet of reproducible graph paper, and ready-made cipher alphabets round out the material, with solutions printed at the back.

Dover published it in 1997 as a "Dover Original," 71 pages (Z103.J65 1997; OCLC 36817271). Little else about Bud Johnson's career is documented; publisher copy describes him as a former military cryptographer, though that claim could not be independently verified here.